Bulldogs officials yesterday revealed that troubled NSW Origin forward Willie Mason was suffering from a mental condition and confirmed for the first time he had tested positive to a banned substance.

Club doctor Hugh Hazard said Mason, who has been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), was unable to take the medication he required because it was on the NRL's list of prohibited drugs, but moves to enable him to legally do so were already well progressed.

Hazard and Bulldogs coach Steve Folkes took the extraordinary step of making public Mason's illness after becoming concerned for his welfare due to the push by some media commentators and members of the public to have him sacked from the Blues side for his off-field behaviour.

Mason, 24, was fined $6000 on three separate charges stemming from last week's infamous bonding session that has already cost St George Illawarra centre Mark Gasnier and Sydney Roosters winger Anthony Minichiello their places in Wednesday night's opening State of Origin clash at Telstra Stadium.

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"He's just been copping a whole heap of stuff he doesn't understand or comprehend, so that makes you worry about people," Hazard said last night.

"We've got a responsibility to him, not just as a footballer but as a person, and we're hoping that by coming out people may look at things a bit differently.

"We're not asking people to say that because he's got ADHD you should forgive him for everything he's done. But what we are saying is that there are other reasons that his behaviour may occasionally seem out of character and give us a chance, give him a chance . . . we're doing our best to turn that around."

Hazard said he had initially suspected Mason suffered ADHD when he and Folkes were continually at loggerheads last season. A meeting was arranged last September and Mason was diagnosed at the beginning of this season.

"There are two distinct sets of behavioural symptoms that are very common with ADHD, and they may occur together," Hazard said. "They are inattention, lack of concentration, learning difficulties, they have hyperactivity, impulsivity and they've got an increased propensity for risk taking.

"Of course, the really interesting thing about this is that sport selects some of these traits because they are the sorts of things which make good players."

But Hazard also had no doubt the disorder was the reason Mason had played most of his 89 NRL matches, all seven Tests and his lone Origin appearance so far from the interchange bench.

"Concentration spans are very short," Hazard said. "You've just got to send out messages or get him off and recharge him. It's very difficult for people who have ADHD also to set goals or aims and objectives because they can't get that far ahead.

"In some respects, sport is an easy way out because it's an 80-minute game and they've got limited goals - put the ball under your arm and go forward - and for big people who are athletic that's one thing that they can achieve at a reasonable level."

Hazard said Mason had visited a brain and behavioural specialist and undergone electro-psychological testing to confirm the condition and was now trying to get permission to take Ritilan, an amphetamine-based product.

Hazard, who is also the NRL's chief medical officer, said more than half a dozen athletes in other sports were currently playing while on similar medication, and he was aware of former league players winning approval to do so from the Australian Sports Drug Medical Advisory Committee (ASDMAC).

"It's banned in sport, obviously because it is a central nerve stimulant for everybody else but those who have ADHD," he said.

"In them, it actually works the other way, which is an interesting thing. For the normal population that might go out and take ecstasy and dance all night, they get a central nervous buzz - for a player or a patient who's got ADHD, that actually calms them down.

"ASDMAC require a second independent opinion before they approve it but I've got no doubt it will be approved. He's had one consultation with a psychiatrist who states quite clearly that he has an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder of quite a degree of severity, so there's no doubt that's what he has.

"His behaviour in some respects could be considered quite immature. He's very inconsistent in his behaviour, his behaviour is often inappropriate, he has difficulty remembering things, he's irritable and more than anything else he's impulsive, which is his major difficulty."

Hazard said sufferers of ADHD not on medication often abused other substances and he agreed alcohol appeared to be a common factor in Mason's lengthy list of off-field indiscretions.

Aside from his latest misdemeanours with NSW, Mason has been in trouble in the past for running off without paying a taxi fare and was also fined by the Bulldogs earlier this season for dressing inappropriately while attending police interviews. Mason had previously maintained his innocence after being named as the Bulldogs player who was fined $25,000 by the club for failing an in-house drugs test last July.

Asked whether there was any evidence of Mason abusing substances other than alcohol, Hazard said: "It was reported in the paper that he failed an in-house test. The substance wasn't the one which was mentioned in the paper and it has not happened since. To the best of my knowledge, it hasn't happened except on one occasion."

Folkes said that since Hazard had told him Mason was suffering a pyschological disorder, their relationship had improved and he was now playing the best football of his four-year NRL career.

"I've seen him in a new light and I'm not butting heads with him anymore. I'm working with him and he is working extremely hard to overcome this particular problem that he has got."

"I think that now he has admitted he has this particular problem the difference has been quite remarkable. This is not to absolve him of any wrongdoing, this is just to say that there is another side to him ... hopefully, when the medication becomes available to him it will help him even more."